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Hezbollah ( , literally
"party of God")
is a Shi'aIslamist
political and paramilitary organisation
based in Lebanon.
Hezbollah is now also a major provider of social services, which
operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands
of Lebanese Shiites, and plays a significant force in Lebanese politics. It is regarded as a
resistance movement throughout
much of the Arab and Muslim world.Many governments, including Arab
ones, have condemned actions by Hezbollah while others have praised
the party. Several western countries regard it in whole or in part
as a terrorist organization.

Hezbollah
receives its financial support from Iran, Syria, and the
donations of Lebaneseand other Shi'a. It has also gained
significantly in military strength in the 2000s.Despite a June 2008
certification by the United Nations that Israel had withdrawn from
all Lebanese territory,in August of that year, Lebanon's new Cabinet
unanimously approved a draft policy statement which secures
Hezbollah's existence as an armed organization and guarantees its
right to "liberate or recover occupied lands." Since 1992, the organization has been
headed by Hassan Nasrallah, its
Secretary-General.

History

Foundation

Scholars differ as to when Hezbollah came to be a distinct entity.
Some organizations list the official formation of the group as
early as 1982, in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Diaz
and Newman maintain however, that Hezbollah remained an
amalgamation of various violent Shi’a activists until as late as
1985. Another source states that it was formed by supporters of
SheikhRagheb
Harb, a leader of the southern Shiite resistance, who was
killed by Israelis in 1984.

Hezbollah waged an asymmetrical guerrilla war against Israel. At
the beginning, it had used suicide attacks
against the Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) and against Israeli targets outside of Lebanon.
Hezbollah is reputed to have been among the first Islamic
resistance groups to use tactical suicide bombing, assassination,
and capturing against foreign soldiers in the Middle East. But
gradually, Hezbollah turned into a paramilitary organization and
used missiles, Katyusha,
and other type of rocket launchers and detonations of explosive
charges instead of capturings, murders, hijackings, and bombings.
Hezbollah has been subject to assassination and abduction by Israel
as well.

During the Civil War, although
Hezbollah battled the Amal militia for
control of Shiite areas and vigorously attacked Israel's Lebanese proxies (SLA), unlike
other wartime militias, it never engaged in sectarian bloodletting
(or fought a major engagement with the army) during the war.
At the end
of civil war in 1990, despite Taif
Agreement asked "disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese
militias", Syria, in control
of Lebanon at that time allowed Hezbollah to maintain their
arsenal, control the Shiite areas in Southern Lebanon along the
border with Israel.

After 1990

In this decade Hezbollah transformed from a revolutionary group
into political one, in a process which is described as
Lebanonisation of Hezbollah. Unlike the uncompromising
revolutionary stance in 1980s, Hezbollah conveyed a lenient stance
towards the Lebanese state.

The process start with the election of Abbas al-Musawi as the secretary general and
promoted when he succeeded by Hasan
Nasrallah. Hezbollah changed its discourse and made it
pluralistic and inclusive in orientation which is called
"Infitah policy". In 1991, al-Manar TV station was
launched.

In 1992,
Hezbollah decided to participate in election and Ali Khamenei, supreme
leader of Iran, endorsed
it. Former Hezbollah secretary general, Subhi al-Tufayli, contested this decision
which led to schism in Hezbollah. Then Hezbollah published its
political program which contains liberation of Lebanese land from
Zionist occupation, abolishment of political sectarianism, ensuring
political and media freedom, amending in electoral law to make it
more representative of the populace. This program led to the
victory of all of twelve seats which were on its electoral list. At
the end of that year Hezbollah began to dialog with Lebanese
Christians. Hezbollah regards cultural, political and religious
freedoms in Lebanon as sanctified. This dialog expands to other
groups except those who have relation with Israel.

In 1997, Hezbollah formed Multi-confessional Lebanese Brigades to
Fighting the Israeli Occupation, which was an attempt to revive
national and secular resistance against Israel, which marks the
Lebanonisation of resistance.

Ideology

On February 16, 1985, Sheik Ibrahim al-Amin issued Hezbollah's
manifesto. According to this manifesto (titled "An Open Letter: The
Hizballah Program"), the three objectives of the organization are:

To
expel the Americans, the French and their allies definitely from
Lebanon, putting an
end to any colonialist entity on our
land.

To submit the Phalanges to a just power and bring them all to
justice for the crimes they have perpetrated against Muslims and
Christians.

To permit all the sons of our people to determine their future
and to choose in all the liberty the form of government they
desire. We call upon all of them to pick the option of Islamic
government which, alone, is capable of guaranteeing justice and
liberty for all. Only an Islamic regime can stop any future
tentative attempts of imperialistic infiltration onto our
country.

The 1985 manifesto makes it clear that Hezbollah intends to use
armed force to achieve these goals and phrases its argument for
this measure through the language of defensive jihad.

We are an ummah linked to the Muslims of the whole world by
the solid doctrinal and religious connection of Islam, whose
message God wanted to be fulfilled by the Seal of the Prophets, i.e., Prophet Muhammad.

Our behavior is dictated to us by legal
principles laid down by the light of an overall political
conception defined by the leading jurist....As for our culture, it
is based on the Holy Quran, the Sunna and the legal rulings of the faqih who is our source of imitation...

Although Hezbollah originally aimed to transform Lebanon into a
formal Faqihi Islamic republic,
this goal has been abandoned. Nasrallah has been quoted as saying,
"We believe the requirement for an Islamic state is to have an
overwhelming popular desire, and we're not talking about fifty
percent plus one, but a large majority. And this is not available
in Lebanon and probably never will be." Doubts, however, remain.
Since that time, Hezbollah has transformed from a revolutionary
movement to a socio-political movement of Lebanese Shi'a and has
accepted the multi-cultural situation of Lebanon. This
transformation is known as "Lebanonization". However, Hezbollah is
not satisfied with the multi-confessional quotas under
the Ta'if Accord, under the pretext
that the Shia's position in the state is lower than its proportion
of population. Hezbollah favors a one-person-one-vote system, but
does not intend to force it onto the other minorities.

Attitudes, statements, and actions concerning Israel and
Zionism

From the inception of Hezbollah to the present, the elimination of
the State of Israel has been one of Hezbollah's primary goals. Some
translations of Hezbollah's 1985 Arabic-language manifesto state
that "our struggle will end only when this entity [Israel] is
obliterated". However neither the original publication of the
manifesto, nor those found on Hezbollah's website, include the
statement. In an interview with the Washington Post, Nasrallah said "I am
against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the
presence of a state that is called 'Israel'". In March 2009, in a
speech marking the birthday of Muhammad,
Nasrallah said, "As long as Hezbollah exists, it will never
recognize Israel." rejecting a US precondition for dialogue.

Israel's
occupation of the Shebaa
Farms, along with the presence of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli
jails, is often cited as justification—and invoked as a
pretext, according to many—for Hezbollah's continued hostilities
against Israel even after Israel's verified withdrawal from Lebanon
in 2000. Hezbollah's spokesperson Hassan Ezzedin, however,
had this to say about an Israeli withdrawal from Shebaa Farms:

"If they go from Shebaa, we won't stop fighting
them.

...

Our goal is to liberate the 1948 borders of Palestine,
...

The Jews who survive this war of liberation can go back
to Germany or wherever they came from.

However, that the Jews who lived in Palestine before
1948 will be 'allowed to live as a minority and they will be cared
for by the Muslim majority.'"

On May 26, 2000, After the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebenon
Hassan Nassrallah said: "I tell you: this "Israel" that owns
nuclear weapons and the strongest air force in this region is more
fragile than a spiderweb". Arie W. Kruglanski, Moshe Ya'alon, Bruce Hoffman, Efraim Inbar,
and YNET interpret the "spider web" theory as
the notion, articulated by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, that
Israel's reverence for human life, the hedonistic nature of the
Israeli society, and its self-indulgent Western values make it
weak, soft, and vulnurable. Such a society, though technologically
advanced, will crumble under continued war and bloodshed.

According to Joseph Alagha, Hezbollah's Deputy-General Na'im Qasim
said during an interview on October 28, 2002 for the Daily Star that the struggle against
Israel is a "core belief" of Hezbollah and "the central rationale
of Hizbullah's existence".

In a 2003 interview, Nasrallah
answered questions concerning the renewed peace talks between the
Palestinians and the Israelis, stating that he would not interfere
in what he regarded as "... primarily a Palestinian matter."
However, in his speeches to his followers, he provides
rationalizations for suicide bombings. Similarly, in 2004, when
asked whether he was prepared to live with a two-state settlement
between Israel and Palestine, Nasrallah said again that he would not
sabotage what is finally a "... Palestinian matter." He also
said that outside of Lebanon, Hezbollah would act only in a
defensive manner towards Israeli forces, and that Hezbollah's
missiles were acquired to deter attacks on Lebanon.

A prominent Hezbollah poster at a May 2009 rally had an image of a
mushroom cloud along with the
message, "OH ZIONISTS, IF YOU WANT THIS TYPE OF WAR THEN SO BE
IT!"

Attitudes and actions concerning Jews and Judaism

Hezbollah officials say that the group distinguishes between
Judaism and Zionism. However, various anti-Semitic statements have been attributed to
them, and their Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah
accused Jews of deliberately spreading H.I.V. and other diseases to
Arabs throughout the Middle East. Al-Manar,
the Hezbollah-owned and operated television station, was criticized
for airing "anti-Semitic propaganda" in the form of a television
drama depicting a Jewish world
domination conspiracy. Hezbollah also used antisemitic
educational materials designed for 5-year-old scouts. Likewise, the
group has been accused of engaging in Holocaust denial, and supporting Holocaust
deniers. In November 2009, Hezbollah pressured a private
English-language school to drop excerpts from The Diary of Anne Frank after
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel
complained, asking how long Lebanon would "remain an open arena for
the Zionist invasion of education"?

Organization

Organizational chart of Hezbollah, by
Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh.

At the beginning many Hezbollah leaders have maintained that the
movement was "not an organization, for its members carry no cards
and bear no specific responsibilities," and that the movement does
not have "a clearly defined organizational structure." Nowadays, as
Hezbollah scholar Magnus Ranstorp
reports, Hezbollah does indeed have a formal governing structure,
and in keeping with the principle of Guardianship of the Islamic
Jurists (velayat-e faqih), it "concentrate[s] ... all
authority and powers" in its religious leaders, whose decisions
then "flow from the ulama down the entire
community."

The supreme decision-making bodies of the Hezbollah
were divided between the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Assembly)
which was headed by 12 senior clerical members with responsibility
for tactical decisions and supervision of overall Hizballah
activity throughout Lebanon, and the Majlis al-Shura al-Karar (the
Deciding Assembly), headed by Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah and
composed of eleven other clerics with responsibility for all
strategic matters.

Within the Majlis al-Shura, there existed seven
specialized committees dealing with ideological, financial,
military and political, judicial, informational and social
affairs.

In turn, the Majlis al-Shura and these seven
committees were replicated in each of Hizballah's three main
operational areas (the Beqaa, Beirut, and the
South).

Since the Supreme Leader of
Iran is the ultimate clerical authority, Hezbollah's leaders
have appealed to him "for guidance and directives in cases when
Hezbollah's collective leadership [was] too divided over issues and
fail[ed] to reach a consensus." After the death of Iran's first
Supreme Leader, Khomeini, Hezbollah's governing bodies developed a
more "independent role" and appealed to Iran less often.
Since the
Second Lebanon War, however,
Iran has restructured Hezbollah to limit the power of
Hassan Nasrallah, and invested
billions of dollars "rehabilitating" Hezbollah.

Structurally, Hezbollah does not distinguish between its
political/social activities within Lebanon and its
military/jihad activities against Israel. "Hezbollah has a
single leadership," according to Naim
Qassem, Hezbollah's second in command, "All political, social
and jihad work is tied to the decisions of this leadership ... The
same leadership that directs the parliamentary and government work
also leads jihad actions in the struggle against Israel."

Hezbollah, along with the Amal
Movement, represents most of Lebanese Shi'a. However, unlike
Amal, Hezbollah has not disarmed. Hezbollah participates in the Parliament of
Lebanon. In the general election of 2005, it
won 10.9% of parliamentary seats. The Resistance and Development
Bloc, of which Hezbollah is a member, won all 23 seats in
Southern Lebanon, and in total, 35
seats, or 27.3% of parliamentary seats nationwide. When municipal
elections were held in the first half of 2004, Hezbollah won
control of 21% of the municipalities.

Hezbollah has been one the main parties of March 8 Alliance since polarization of
political atmosphere of Lebanon in March 2005. Although Hezbollah
had joined the new government in 2005, it remained staunchly
opposed to the March 14 Alliance.
In November 2006, Hezbollah, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), and
the Amal Movement jointly demanded the
establishment of a "national
unity government", in which they demanded early elections and
one third of the Cabinet seats; effectively, veto power. When
negotiations with the ruling coalition failed, five Cabinet
Ministers from Hezbollah and Amal
resigned their positions. On December 1, 2006, these groups began
the 2006–2008 Lebanese
political protests, an ongoing series of protests and sit-ins in opposition to the government of Prime
Minister Fouad Siniora. Finally, on May 7,
2008 Lebanon's 17-month long
political crisis spiraled out of control.The fighting was sparked by a
government move to shut down Hezbollah's telecommunication network
and remove Beirut
Airport's security chief over alleged ties to
Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the government's
decision to declare the group's military telecommunications network
illegal was a "declaration of war" on the organization, and
demanded that the government revoke it. Hezbollah-led
opposition fighters seized control of several West Beirut neighborhoods from Future Movement militiamen loyal to the
American-backed government, in street battles that left 11 dead and
30 wounded. The opposition-seized areas were then handed
over to the Lebanese Army. The army
also pledged to resolve the dispute and has reversed the decisions
of the government by letting Hezbollah preserve its telecoms
network and re-instating the airport's security chief. At the end,
rival Lebanese leaders reached consensus over Doha Agreement on May 21, 2008, to end the
18-month political feud that exploded into fighting and nearly
drove the country to a new civil war. On the basis of this
agreement, Hezbollah was granted veto power in Lebanon's
parliament. At the end of the conflicts, National unity government
was formed by Fouad Siniora on July
11, 2008 and Hezbollah has one minister and controls eleven of
thirty seats in the cabinet.

Military activities

Hezbollah has a military branch known as Al-Muqawama
al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Resistance") and is the possible
sponsor of a number of lesser-known militant groups, some of which
may be little more than fronts for Hezbollah itself, including the
Organization of the Oppressed, the Revolutionary Justice
Organization, the Organization of Right Against Wrong, and
Followers of the Prophet Muhammad.

United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the
disarmament of militia with the Taif
agreement at the end of the Lebanese civil war. Hezbollah denounced,
and protested against, the resolution. The 2006 military conflict
with Israel has increased the controversy. Failure to disarm
remains a violation of the resolution and agreement as well as
subsequent United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1701. Since then both Israel and
Hezbollah have asserted that the organization has gained in
military strength. A Lebanese public opinion poll taken in August
2006 shows that most of the Shia did not believe that Hezbollah
should disarm after the 2006 Lebanon
war, while the majority of Sunni, Druze and Christians believed
that they should. The Lebanese cabinet, under president Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, guidelines state that Hezbollah
enjoys the right to "liberate occupied lands." In 2009, a Hezbollah
commander (speaking on condition of anonymity) said, "[W]e have far
more rockets and missiles [now] than we did in 2006." There is
speculation in the world press that Hezbollah is actively preparing
for another war.

Suicide attacks and kidnappings

Between 1982 and 1986, there were 36 suicide attacks in Lebanon
directed against American, French and Israelis forces by 41
individuals with predominantly leftist political beliefs and of
both major religions, killing 659. Hezbollah has been accused of
some or all of these attacks, but denies involvement in any.
These
attacks included the April 1983 U.S.Embassy bombing (by the Islamic Jihad Organization), the
1983 Beirut
barracks bombing (by the Islamic Jihad Organization), and a spate of
attacks on IDF troops and
SLA militiamen in southern
Lebanon. The period also saw the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985, and the Lebanon hostage crisis from 1982 to
1992. More recently, Hezbollah has been accused of the January 15,
2008, bombing of a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Beirut.

Outside of Lebanon, Hezbollah has been accused of the 1992 Israeli Embassy
attack in Buenos Aires, and the 1994 AMIA bombing of a Jewish cultural
centre, both in Argentina. According to Nasrallah, however,
Hezbollah refused any participation in operations outside Lebanese
and Israeli lands before 2008.

Conflict with Israel

South Lebanon conflict

Hezbollah has been involved in several cases of armed conflict with
Israel:

During the 1982–2000 South Lebanon
conflict, Hezbollah waged a guerrilla campaign against Israeli forces
occupying Southern Lebanon.
Israel withdrew in 2000 in accordance with 1978's United Nations
Security Council Resolution 425. With the collapse of their
supposed allies, the SLA, and the
rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, they withdrew suddenly on May
24, 2000 six weeks before the announced 7 July date." Hezbollah
held a victory parade, and its popularity in Lebanon rose.
Hezbollah and many analysts considered this a victory for the
movement, and since then its popularity has been boosted in
Lebanon.

On July 25, 1993, following Hezbollah's killing of seven
Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, Israel launched Operation Accountability (known in
Lebanon as the Seven Day War), during which the IDF carried out their heaviest
artillery and air attacks on targets in southern Lebanon since
1982. The aim of the operation was to eradicate the threat posed by
Hezbollah and to force the civilian population north to Beirut so
as to put pressure on the Lebanese Government to restrain
Hezbollah. The fighting ended when an unwritten understanding was
agreed to by the warring parties. Apparently, the 1993
understanding provided that Hezbollah combatants would not fire
rockets at northern Israel, while Israel would not attack civilians
or civilian targets in Lebanon.

In April 1996, after continued Hezbollah rocket attacks on
Israeli civilians, the Israeli armed forces launched Operation Grapes of Wrath, which
was intended to wipe out Hezbollah's base in southern Lebanon.
Over 100
Lebanese refugees were killed by
the shelling of a UN base at Qana, in what the
Israeli military said was a mistake. Finally, following
several days of negotiations, the two sides signed the Grapes of Wrath
Understandings on April 26, 1996. A cease-fire was agreed upon
between Israel and Hezbollah, which would be effective on April 27,
1996. Both sides agreed that civilians should not be targeted,
which meant that Hezbollah would be allowed to continue its
military activities against IDF forces inside Lebanon.

2000 Hezbollah cross-border raid

On October 7, 2000, three Israeli
soldiers – Adi Avitan, Staff Sgt. Benyamin Avraham, and Staff
Sgt. Omar Sawaidwere – were abducted by Hezbollah while patrolling
the Israeli side of the Israeli-Lebanese border. The soldiers
were killed either during the attack or in its immediate aftermath.
Defense MinisterShaul Mofaz has, however, said that Hezbollah
abducted the soldiers and then killed them. The bodies of the slain
soldiers were exchanged for Lebanese prisoners in 2004.

2006 Lebanon War

The
2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day
military conflict in Lebanon and northern
Israel. The principal parties were Hezbollah
paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict was
precipitated by a cross-border raid by Hezbollah during which they
kidnapped and killed Israeli soldiers. In a speech in July 2008,
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that he had ordered
the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers in order to free prisoners held
in Israeli jails. The conflict
began on July 12, 2006 when Hezbollah militants fired rockets at Israeli border towns as
a diversion for an anti-tank
missile attack on two armored Humvees
patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence, killing three,
injuring two, and seizing two Israeli soldiers.

Israel
responded with massive airstrikes and
artillery fire on targets in Lebanon that
damaged Lebanese civilianinfrastructure, including Beirut's Rafic
Hariri International Airport (which Israel said that Hezbollah used to import
weapons and supplies), an air and naval blockade, and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah then
launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in
guerrilla warfare from hardened
positions. The war continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on August 14, 2006.
Hezbollah was responsible for thousands of Katyusha rocket attacks against
Israeli civilian towns and cities in northern Israel, which
Hezbollah said were in retaliation for Israel's killing of
civilians and targeting Lebanese infrastructure. According to
The Guardian, "In the fighting
1,200 Lebanese and 158 Israelis were killed. Of the dead almost
1,000 Lebanese and 41 Israelis were civilians."

Attacks against the Multinational force in Iraq

In June 2006, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield
disclosed that Hizbullah cadres had attacked U.S.-led coalition
forces in Iraq.

In his testimony before the Armed Services Committees of the
Congress on April 8, 2008, General David Petraeus, the commander of
the multinational forces in Iraq, reported that the Iranian Qods
Force, with the assistance of Lebanese Hizbullah’s Department 2800,
was training, arming and guiding the “Special Groups” in Iraq.
Asharq Alawsat reported on August 18, 2008, that Iran denied that
Hezbollah operatives were involved in attacks against U.S. and
Iraqi forces in four Iraqi provinces.

Armed strength

Hezbollah has not revealed its armed strength. It has been
estimated by Mustafa Alani, security director at the Dubai-based
Gulf Research Centre, that Hezbollah's military force is made up of
about 1,000 full-time Hezbollah members, along with a further
6,000-10,000 volunteers.

Hezbollah possesses the Katyusha-122 rocket, which has a
range of 29 km (18 mi) and carries a 15-kg (33-lb)
warhead. Hezbollah also possesses about 100 long-range missiles.
They
include the Iranian-made Fajr-3 and Fajr-5, the latter with a range of , enabling it to
strike the Israeli port of Haifa, and the
Zelzal-1, with an estimated range, which
can reach Tel
Aviv. Fajr-3 missiles have a range of and a 45-kg
(99-lb) warhead, and Fajr-5 missiles, which extend to , also hold
45-kg (99-lb) warheads.

Although Hezbollah has denounced certain attacks on Western
civilians, some people accuse the organization of the bombing of an
Argentine synagogue in 1994. Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, Marcelo
Martinez Burgos, and their "staff of some 45 people" said that
Hezbollah and their contacts in Iran were responsible for the
1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural
center in Argentina, in which "[e]ighty-five people were killed and
more than 200 others injured." In June 2002, shortly after
the Israeli government launched Operation Defensive Shield,
Nasrallah gave a speech in which he defended and praised suicide
bombings of Israeli targets by members of Palestinian groups for
"creating a deterrence and equalizing fear." Nasrallah stated that
"in occupied Palestine, there is no difference between a soldier
and a civilian, for they are all invaders, occupiers and usurpers
of the land."

Attacks on Hezbollah leaders

Hezbollah has also been the target of bomb attacks and kidnappings.
These include:

On July 28, 1989, Israeli commandos kidnapped Sheikh Abdul
Karim Obeid, the leader of Hezbollah. This action led to the
adoption of UN Security Council resolution 638, which condemned all
hostage takings by all sides.

In 1992, Israeli helicopters attacked a motorcade in southern
Lebanon, killing the Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi, his wife, son, and four
others.

Media operations

Hezbollah operates a satellite television station, Al-Manar TV ("the Lighthouse")
and a radio station al-Nour ("the
Light"). Al-Manar broadcasts from Beirut, Lebanon.The
station was launched by Hezbollah in 1991 with the help of Iranian
funds. Al-Manar, self-proclaimed "Station of the Resistance"
(qanat al-muqawama), is a key player in what Hezbollah calls its
"psychological warfare against
the Zionist enemy" and an integral part of
Hezbollah's plan to spread its message to the entire Arab world.

Hezbollah's television station Al-Manar airs programming designed to inspire
suicide attacks in Gaza, the
West
Bank, and Iraq.
Al-Manar's transmission in France is prohibited due to promotion of
Holocaust denial, a criminal
offense in France. The United States lists Al-Manar television network as a terrorist
organization.

Materials aimed at instilling principles of nationalism and Islam
in children are an aspect of Hezbollah's media operations. The
Hezbollah Central Internet Bureau released a video game in 2003
entitled Special Force, in
which players conduct war on Israeli invaders, wherein the winner
becomes a national hero on Earth and a martyr in Heaven.

Social services

Hezbollah also organizes extensive social development programs,
running hospitals, news services, and educational facilities.
Social services have a central role in the party's programs. Most
experts believe that Hezbollah's social and health programs are
worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Hezbollah organizes an extensive social development program and
runs hospitals, news services, educational facilities, and
encouragement of Nikah mut‘ah.
Some of its established institutions are: Emdad committee for
Islamic Charity, Hezbollah Central Press Office, Al Jarha
Association, and Jihad Al Binaa
Developmental Association. Jihad Al Binna's Reconstruction
Campaign is responsible for numerous economic and infrastructure
development projects in Lebanon. Hezbollah has set up a Martyr's
Institute (Al-Shahid Social Association), which guarantees to
provide living and education expenses for the families of fighters
who die in battle.In March 2006, an IRIN news report of the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
noted:"Hezbollah not only has armed and political wings - it also
boasts an extensive social development program. Hezbollah currently
operates at least four hospitals, twelve clinics, twelve schools
and two agricultural centres that provide farmers with technical
assistance and training. It also has an environmental department
and an extensive social assistance program. Medical care is also
cheaper than in most of the country's private hospitals and free
for Hezbollah members".

According to CNN: "Hezbollah did everything that a government
should do, from collecting the garbage to running hospitals and
repairing schools."In July 2006, during the war with Israel,
when there was no running water in Beirut, Hezbollah
was arranging supplies around the city. "People here [in
South Beirut] see Hezbollah as a political movement and a social
service provider as much as it is a militia, in this traditionally
poor and dispossessed Shiite community." Also, after the war it
competed with the Lebanese government to reconstruct destroyed
areas. According to analysts like American University Professor
Judith Swain Harik, Jihad al-Binaa
has won the initial battle of hearts and minds, in large part
because they are the most experienced in Lebanon in the field of
reconstruction.

Funding

Hezbollah's financial support is a matter of controversy. Critics
argue that it is, or has been, massively supported with tens of
millions of dollars annually from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Hezbollah maintains that the main source of its income comes from
donations by Muslims.

Lebanese Shi’ites often make zakat
contributions directly after prayers and an additional donation in
a Hezbollah donation box.Hezbollah also receives financial and
political assistance, as well as weapons and training, from the
Islamic
Republic of Iran. The US estimates that Iran has been giving
Hezbollah about US$60–100 million per year in financial
assistance.

Foreign relations

Hezbollah has close relations with Iran. It also has ties with the
leadership in Syria, specifically with President Hafez al-Assad (until his death in 2000) and
his son and successor Bashar
al-Assad. Although Hezbollah and Hamas are
not organizationally linked, Hezbollah provides military training
as well as financial and moral support to the SunniPalestinian
group. Furthermore, Hezbollah is a strong supporter of the ongoing
Al-Aqsa Intifada.Whether there has been cooperation or any
relationship between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda
has been questioned. Hezbollah's leaders deny links to al-Qaeda,
present or past. Also, some al-Qaeda
leaders, like Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi and Wahhabi clerics, consider
Hezbollah to be apostate.But United States
intelligence officials speculate that
there has been contact between Hezbollah and low-level al-Qaeda
figures who fled Afghanistan for Lebanon.

Outside views

Public opinion

In much of the Arab world, Hezbollah is seen as a legitimate
resistance organization that has defended its land against an
Israeli occupying force and has consistently stood up to the
Israeli army.

According to a survey released by the "Beirut Center for Research
and Information" on 26 July during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict,
87 percent of Lebanese support Hezbollah's "retaliatory attacks on
northern Israel", a rise of 29 percentage points from a similar
poll conducted in February. More striking, however, was the level
of support for Hezbollah's resistance from non-Shiite communities.
Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hezbollah, along with
80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.

In a poll of Lebanese adults taken in 2004, 6% of respondents gave
unqualified support to the statement "Hezbollah should be
disarmed". 41% reported unqualified disagreement. A poll of Gaza
Strip and West Bank residents indicated that 79.6% had "a very good
view" of Hezbollah, and most of the remainder had a "good view".
Polls of Jordanian adults in December 2005 and June 2006 showed
that 63.9% and 63.3%, respectively, considered Hezbollah to be a
legitimate resistance organization. In the December 2005 poll, only
6% of Jordanian adults considered Hezbollah to be terrorist.

A July 2006 USA Today/Gallup poll found that 83% of the 1,005
Americans polled blamed Hezbollah, at least in part, for the
2006 Lebanon War, compared to 66%
who blamed Israel to some degree. Additionally, 76% disapproved of
the military action Hezbollah took in Israel, compared to 38% who
disapproved of Israel's military action in Lebanon.A poll in August
2006 by ABC News and the Washington Post found that 68% of the
1,002 Americans polled blamed Hezbollah, at least in part, for the
civilian casualties in Lebanon during the 2006 Lebanon War, compared to 31% who
blamed Israel to some degree. Another August 2006 poll by CNN showed that 69% of the 1,047 Americans polled
believed that Hezbollah is unfriendly towards, or an enemy of, the
United States.

Designation as a terrorist organization or resistance
movement

Governments disagree on Hezbollah’s status as a legitimate
political entity, a terrorist group, or both. Throughout most of the
Arab and Muslim
worlds, Hezbollah is referred to as a resistance movement. Hezbollah's violent
acts are considered by some countries as terrorist attacks; other governments regard
Hezbollah as resistance and engaged in national defense."

In 1999, Hezbollah was placed on the US State Department terrorism
list. After Hezbollah's condemnation of the September 11, 2001
attacks on the USA, it was removed from the list, but it was later
returned to the list. In 2002, US State Department official
Christopher Ross was cited as explaining that while "the Hezbollah
party and some of its members carried out terrorist acts in the
past", "the acts that it carried out against the Israeli forces in
South Lebanon were not terrorist acts."

The European Union does not list
Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization"; it listed the deceased
Imad Mugniyah, a senior member and
founder of Hezbollah, as a terrorist. In addition, on March
10, 2005, the European
Parliament passed a non-binding resolution recognizing
"clear evidence" of "terrorist activities by Hezbollah" and urging
the EU Council to
brand Hezbollah a terrorist organization and EU governments to
place Hezbollah on their terrorist blacklists, as the bloc did with
the Palestinian Hamas group in 2003.The
Council, however, has been reluctant to do this, because France,
Spain, and Britain fear that such a move would further damage the
prospects for Middle East peace talks. In the midst of the
2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Russia’s government
declined to include Hezbollah in a newly released list of terrorist
organizations, with Yuri Sapunov, the head of anti-terrorism for
the Federal
Security Service of the Russian Federation, saying that they
list only organizations which represent "the greatest threat to the
security of our country". Prior to the release of the list, Russian
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov called
"on Hezbollah to stop resorting to any terrorist methods, including
attacking neighboring states."

The Quartet’s fourth member, the United
Nations, does not maintain such a list, however, the United
Nations has made repeated calls for Hezbollah to disarm and accused
the group of destabilizing the region and causing harm to Lebanese
civilians. Human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Hezbollah
of committing war crimes against Israeli
civilians, in which in the same article,
they also accused Israel of war crimes but against Lebanese
civilians.

Some other countries have criticized Hezbollah, citing terrorist
activities, without maintaining such a list. Argentine prosecutors hold Hezbollah and their financial
supporters in Iran responsible for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center,
described by the Associated Press
as "the worst terrorist attack on Argentine soil", in which
"[e]ighty-five people were killed and more than 200 others
injured." On 24 February 2000, French Prime MinisterLionel Jospin condemned attacks by Hezbollah
fighters on Israeli forces in south Lebanon, saying they are
"terrorism" and not acts of resistance. "France condemns
Hezbollah's attacks, and all types of terrorist attacks which may
be carried out against soldiers, or possibly Israel's civilian
population." On August 29, 2006, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema differentiated the wings of
Hezbollah: "Apart from their well-known terrorist activities, they
also have political standing and are socially engaged." Germany
does not maintain an independent national list of terrorist
organizations, choosing instead to adopt the common EU list;
however, German officials indicate that they would likely support a
designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. While not maintaining
a list as such, the Netherlands regard Hezbollah as terrorist discussing it as such
in official reports of their general intelligence and security
service and in official answers by the Minister of Foreign
Affairs.

In contrast, supporters of Hezbollah justify Hezbollah's attacks
against Israel on several grounds. Firstly, Hezbollah justifies its
operations against Israel as reciprocal to Israeli operations
against Lebanese civilians and as retaliation for Israel's
occupation of Lebanese
territory.Many of these attacks took place while
Israel occupied the southern part of Lebanon and held it
as a security zone in spite of United Nations
Security Council Resolution 425.Although Israel
withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, and their complete withdrawal was
verified by the United Nations,
Lebanon now considers the Shebaa farms—a 26-km² (10-mi²) piece of land captured by Israel
from Syria in the 1967
war and considered by the UN to be disputed territory between Syria
and Israel—to be Lebanese territory. Additionally, Hezbollah
has identified three
Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails who it wants released.
Finally, Hezbollah and others among the Muslim world consider
Israel to be an illegitimate state. For these reasons, many in the
Arab world consider acts performed by Hezbollah against Israel to
be justified as acts of defensive
Jihad. Although some Arab states (Egypt, Jordan, and
Saudi
Arabia) have condemned Hezbollah's actions, saying that
"the Arabs and Muslims can't afford to allow an irresponsible and
adventurous organization like Hezbollah to drag the region to war"
and calling it "dangerous adventurism," Hezbollah is regarded as a
legitimate resistance movement throughout much of Lebanese society
and the Arab and Muslim world. In August 2008, Lebanon's
cabinet completed a policy statement which recognized "the right of
Lebanon's people, army, and resistance to liberate the
Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, Kafar Shuba Hills, and the Lebanese
section of Ghajar village, and defend the country using all legal
and possible means."

Footnotes

In English the stress is most commonly placed on the final
syllable, as suggested in the Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary (this is in accord with the Persian pronunciation,
of Iran); in the Arabic of Hezbollah's theatre of operations it is
most commonly placed on the second syllable. Hizb (party)
is the Modern Standard Arabic pronunciation,
and hezb is closer to Persian and Lebanese dialect. The
name is derived from a Qur’anicayat (verse) referring to those who belong to and
follow the "party of God" [1]. :حزب الله ḥizbu-'llāh(i) -u nominative case
marker in iḍāfa, initial "a"
(written as "alif" ا) in Allāh (الله) is silent. :Initial letter
alif (ا) is usually dropped in this situation. Hence, expressions:
bi-'llaah(i), wa-'llaah(i), etc. Final i (unwritten "kasra") (often
dropped - is the genitive case marker). The 1st word ends in -u
(unwritten ḍamma) in nominative case, -a in accusative, -i in
genitive. :ḥizbu-'llāh(i) - nominative
:ḥizbi-'llāh(i) - genitive :ḥizba-'llāh(i) -
accusative

"Central to this issue is Hizballah’s claim, which was also
espoused by Lebanon’s former pro-Syrian government, that the
disputed Shebaa Farms are Lebanese rather than Syrian territories
and are occupied by Israel. Therefore, Hizballah maintains that it
is a legitimate resistance movement fighting for the liberation of
Lebanese territory. Under this pretext, Hizballah, supported by
some Lebanese parties, could argue that it is not a militia and
thus it is outside the jurisdiction of Resolution 1559." Robert
Rabil. Reinforcing Lebanon’s Sovereignty,
Washington Institute
for Near East Policy, November 8, 2005.

"The Best American Magazine Writing 2003" By American Society
of Magazine Editors, Contributor David Remnick, Published by
HarperCollins, 2003, ISBN 0060567759, 9780060567750, 464 pages,
Page 88

Hezbollah's condemnation of murder of civilians in Egypt and
Algeria is described in Saad-Ghorayeb, p. 101.

"Argentine prosecutors: Arrest former Iranian
president."Jerusalem Post, 2006-10-26, "Prosecutor
Alberto Nisman told a news conference that the decision to attack
the center 'was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of
the then-government of Iran.' He said the actual attack was
entrusted to the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah."